Raise Your Ad Budget Before Black Friday, Not On It

A familiar holiday pattern goes like this. Business is busy, Black Friday arrives, someone decides the ads should be pushed harder, and the daily budget gets doubled that morning. By the end of the weekend the account has spent a lot more, and nobody is quite sure what it bought.

The problem is not spending more in a busy week. It is making the decision on the day, with no plan for how much, where it should go or when to stop. Black Friday is November 27 this year. There is still time to make the decision properly.

Why sudden changes work against you

Most ad platforms now use automated bidding, which sets bids based on what has worked in the account recently. A large, sudden change to budget or targeting gives that system less recent history to work from, and it can take some days to settle. Make the change on the busiest day of the season and the settling happens exactly when you can least afford it.

Costs also tend to rise in late November, because more businesses are competing for the same searches and the same audiences. A budget that bought a steady flow of clicks in October may buy noticeably fewer in Black Friday week. Planning ahead lets you decide in advance whether to pay that premium or put the money somewhere else.

Write the plan down now

A holiday budget plan does not need to be long. It needs to answer a few questions before anyone is under pressure:

• How much extra you are willing to spend in total across the season, not per day.
• Which campaigns get the increase, starting with the ones that already bring in customers.
• When the increase starts, ideally in steps over the week or two before the peak rather than all at once.
• Which days or hours matter most, so you can schedule more spend for them.
• The date the budget comes back down, and who is responsible for doing it.

If you have not set a budget from first principles before, work backwards from the jobs you want to the ad budget you need explains how to arrive at a number you can defend.

The worst time to decide how much to spend is the moment you are already spending it.

Raise it in steps, and watch the right numbers

Rather than doubling the budget overnight, increase it gradually over the run-up so the account has time to adjust. Keep an eye on what each increase is producing: calls, form fills, bookings and sales, not just clicks. If cost per lead starts climbing steeply while the number of leads stays flat, the extra money is buying traffic that is not converting, and it is better spent elsewhere.

Check the search terms the ads are showing for as well. A bigger budget can stretch broad keywords into searches that have nothing to do with what you sell. The search terms report is where that waste shows up first.

Plan the stop as carefully as the start

The step that most often gets forgotten is bringing the budget back down. A holiday increase that quietly runs into January spends money on a period when demand has dropped. Put the date in the calendar now, with a name next to it. For the rest of the season's setup, see setting up your holiday ad campaigns.

Planning and managing holiday spend is part of Vizible's paid advertising service. If you would like a plan built around your own numbers, start with a free growth proposal.